‘The Americans’: Martha and the KGB

The Americans is on track to tie up many of its loose ends this season. As The Americans gets deeper into its run, the story doesn’t expand, it gets tighter. People who didn’t know each other previously meet for the first time. Worlds collide. The Martha story is clearly coming to a head as the FBI gets more and more suspicious. We still have William’s biological threat story to weave in and out of but it’s really all about Martha.

Martha, Martha, Martha.

I see many tears in your future, Martha.

We pick up right where we left off with Philip and Elizabeth worrying about Martha. We see Martha swallowing pills again but it’s unclear what she’s taking. As she leaves her apartment, she opts to bring her gun to work, which may not be a bad idea.

Agents Beeman and Aderholt do a deep dive on Martha, trying to find a weak spot in her story. They find out she had an abortion in 1964, back when it was dangerous and illegal. They find her story about a “married” boyfriend entirely too suspicious.

Philip tells William they need another Glanders sample. He scoffs at this request. He says Glanders is sooooo last week and the USA is ready to move on to Tularemia, which is easily weaponized. Philip really wants to get his hands on that yummy stuff. Philip shares his desire to get Martha out but the Center isn’t ready to give up on her.

Clark surprises Martha on the streets of DC and tells her that the FBI may know her secrets. He wants to take her to a safe house. Clark introduces Martha to Gabriel, a good friend of his. Well, that’s not an introduction I saw coming! Gabriel scolds Philip for acting impulsively. Gabriel insists that Martha return to work tomorrow as if nothing happened. Philip tells Gabriel that he also showed Martha what he really looks like. Philip takes off his wig and glasses and walks away. “Martha is done.” We’ve seen that it’s not entirely simple for Philip to put on his wig. It’s surprising that Henry and Paige have never seen either of their parents in disguise.

Philip, Gabriel, and Martha continue to hang out like everything is normal. Gabriel makes dinner while Martha watches TV. Then, Elizabeth stops by to bring Martha some supplies for the evening. It’s only been three weeks since Philip revealed his true look to Martha. It’s further evidence of how compact this story has become. I don’t know if we’re going to make it to 1989 on The Americans. That’s too bad because I imagine Philip and Elizabeth watching the Berlin Wall coming down on television.

Martha and Philip continue to talk. At first, Martha is jealous of his relationship with Elizabeth. But when Philip tells her that they both work for the KGB, she breaks down. Her heart must sink to the floor. But she turns it around quickly! She doesn’t care as long as they are together. She says they can run away! She says, in so many words, that they need to have sex right now. So they do. In your heart of hearts, haven’t you always wanted to have sex with an active KGB agent, Martha?

Martha calls in sick so Agent Aderholt gives her apartment a call to make sure she’s OK. No one answers, of course. Philip says that they’ll find a new place to be together. When Martha asks if she’ll ever go home again, he doesn’t answer. Stan and Aderholt arrive at Martha’s empty apartment. None of her lies make any sense.

Gabriel informs Philip that his bad day is about to get worse. William sent out an emergency signal. As I would have guessed, Gabriel says they can never use anything Martha provides them again. At this point, no one can trust Martha because of what she knows. Philip may care deeply for her but her time working for the KGB and the FBI is over.

Agent Gaad has his hands full. Literally. This Martha situation is a bit of a hassle, too. (Facebook.com/TheAmericans)

Oleg continues to have a hard time in America and wonders if he should return home to help his mother. Arkady barges in and informs Oleg they may need to exfiltrate an American citizen, a secretary, to Moscow.

Back at the FBI, the investigation progresses quickly. The found some prints at the apartment and they’ve checked into the name Clark Westerfeld. There’s an 85-year-old in Idaho and a 35-year-old attorney in Atlanta. They’re going to look into the attorney first. I mean, it’s possible Martha and an octogenarian potato farmer are hooking up but it’s not very likely. Stan also wants a check for any deceased Clark Westerfelds. Aderholt and Stan decide to bring Agent Gaad (finally) into the discussion. Everything hinges on what he believes they should do with Martha. If he doesn’t believe them and she returns to work tomorrow and never works for the KGB again, they may not get anywhere. When Gaad hears all the evidence he says that Martha worked there over ten years. “That’s crazy.” I think he believes this insane story.

Down on the docks, Hans watches Elizabeth at a bus stop. Philip saunters up to William for a drop-off in broad daylight. William hands him a jar with a dead rat, inside. “Oh, you really shouldn’t have!” In order to get the biological sample, William had to improvise. He brought Philip a rat infected with Tularemia. How do I know that jar is air tight? I want nothing to do with your dead rat, William. Gross, man.

Stan and Agent Gaad consider the past two years and realize that Martha most likely put the pen on his desk. Maybe the KGB killed Gene to protect Martha. It’s all making sense now. Martha will never set foot inside the FBI again.

Martha wakes up and it’s just her and Gabriel. Clark will be back soon. Martha has had enough. She’s leaving. On the front porch, she has a fight with Gabriel. As he comes closer, she threatens to yell and tell everyone he’s KGB. His home owner’s association is not going to like that! Martha storms off down the street.

Martha on the run!

I think we can say Martha has officially snapped at this point. The Russians want her out of the country as soon as possible and I’m guessing she’s not going to be thrilled with her new predicament. Learning Russian in your forties will be a long hard road. Of course, if she does actually go to Russia, Philip will never see her again. That’s the untold story here. Martha will be all alone in a country where she doesn’t know the language with no prospect of ever going anywhere else again. It will be all Russia all the time.

I would still like to know the long game on William. He’s delivered Glanders and now a disgusting rat in a jar. He already infected Gabriel and gave Philip and Elizabeth quite a scare. I mean, we’ve already gone down this path. Will we have another contamination? Will Philip, in a fit of rage, throw the rat jar out the window onto the streets of DC, infecting a few hundred people? Probably not. But if I know anything about Chekhov’s rat jar, that jar will not be successfully delivered to scientists in Russia. We’ll be dealing with Martha first, one way or another, and then we’ll get to a widespread bio-contamination. That will be fun.

Final Thoughts:

“Epcot. Don’t kill the dream.” I never realized Henry coined that phrase for Disney.

The Americans airs on Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. until whenever they say they’re done… on FX.